No Rest for a Vualt Dweller (M)
by Rorek55
Summary: This story will follow the main character as he tells his story of the events that transpired during his life. His trials in finding the love of his life, and his growth along the way. There will be love, loss, references, inspirational moments and, hopefully, plenty of humor along the way. (please bear with me, I write this in my free time between college and work)
1. Chapter 1

**Chapter 1**

Grey, my entire world has always been the dull grey blue of the vault walls. Only, it wasn't just the vault itself. My life reflected the dull color of my world. Get up, eat, go to school, work, come home, eat, sleep, get up, and repeat. I never felt that my life had meaning, never felt a sense of purpose or value. I just ran off routines. Ever since I was old enough for my pipboy, my life has followed the same routine day in and day out for the past 9 years. I had never had friends growing up, I was always the odd one out, and growing up in a vault (Vaults are giant underground complex's built to house groups of people in case of a nuclear apocalypse. At the very least ours worked) with 500 people, when you were labeled something it was hard to change that, specifically in my small class. I was told that my mom had died during my birth, my father had almost ceased to function after that, I think he held it together just long enough for me to be able to handle myself. He is now basically the resident vault drunk and I haven't seen him sober enough to speak with him in a year. It was after the GOAT I discovered I was destined to be an engineer, one of the guys that kept everything in the vault up and running, important right? Yeah I thought it was too, turns out to be a load of crap. See it is also excruciatingly boring. Hardly anything broke. It was always just routine checks and the occasional loose bolt (or every so often old Mr. Springfield would have us save the world by, yep you guessed it, oiling his chair. Seriously, I don't know why we let him continue to do that, guess it's a tradition or something at this point).

In the end, I never made any real friends, save for one girl, Mia was her name (Partly due to me preferring the company of my books than most of the assholes in my class). She had always preferred my company when we were small; said I was kind and gentle, unlike the others. I would sit for hours and listen to her sing, or read my comics with her. We eventually got separated though. She was destined to be the next overseer and had been whisked away not long after her 12th birthday for private tutoring that turned out to take up most of her life. I hardly got to see her anymore, so I secluded myself in my books, and well eventually I ran out. I had even finished most of the technical books and new how to fix just about anything in the vault without a sweat, from firearms, to the water and air purifiers, and even the entertainment systems. Not long after I exhausted my reading material I was struck with an urge to write my own stories(fantasy based of course). Mixing themes from all of the books I had read I started to create new works. My proficiency of working with my hands even let me draw out the characters from my stories. I printed the first one under the name of Raiden, figuring it would be overlooked quickly. It was quite a surprise when I awoke for work the next day, to find the vault was a buzz about this "anonymous writer." I felt a surge of pride and, for the first time in my life, a real sense of purpose and accomplishment. The first real pride I had ever felt sense becoming an engineer (I had been happy about that, weird right?) a smile touched my face as I finished my routines in record time and sat down in front of the monitor spilling out ever more stories while my boss(hah) slept. I held open meetings with the vault as Raiden, easily disguising my voice over the speakers and hiding my face from the monitors that I used to communicate to Raiden's fans. I even got to talk with Mia that way. In a word, Raiden had become famous.

I guess the reason I am telling you this is for perspective. Raiden's stories grew ever more popular, and I became ever more shadowed(seriously, I think the only people that knew my name in the vault was Mia, the overseer, my dad(I think) and the lovely elderly couple that ran the ice cream and printing press shop.

Anyway, I didn't know it but my world was about to get A LOT more interesting very, very, quickly.

I was working on my pipboy one morning, having hit a wall on my latest story, the ETU (Enhanced Telekinesis Unit) built into my head via a chip held all the parts and tools in a blue glow over my head. I had just finished putting it back together when all hell broke loose.

The vaults alarms blared loudly, I heard shouts and screams coming from the main hallway, instinctively I grabbed all my tools telekinetically via the ETU, then, as an afterthought I grabbed the pistol my father had given me. He said it was called a Desert Eagle back when he had first given it to me (it kicked like a sonafabiscuit), along with the few clips of ammo I had for it. Oh, and my baseball bat; not sure why, thinking back. Outside was the first time I had seen the Vault halls any color but greyish light blue. Red sirens flashed overhead turning the entire vault a vibrant, blood red. Security was running back and forth shouting words I couldn't make out over the sirens. Then I saw something. It was a radroach, a giant mutated roach the size of a large cat. Normally, they weren't a problem when there was just one or two, but now there were over a dozen of the ugly things. I saw a security officer firing at them, taking out two, but the buggers were faster and more dangerous than they appeared. They soon had the officer swarmed, dragging him to the ground and tearing into his flesh. Blood sprayed over the walls.

It was the first time I had seen someone die. I wanted to vomit.

Terrified I ran the opposite direction, I saw Officer Patrick shouting something into his comms relay attached to his pipboy. I ran to him.

"I.. what… why…. Red… Sirens…Bugs" I gasped out, trying to simultaneously catch my breath and calm my racing heart. Patrick looked down at me genuine concern on his face. He had always been one of the nicer officers.

"What are you doing here?! This is no place for a civilian, especially someone as vital to the vault as an engineer! Now calm down and use your words lad." He placed a gloved hand on my shoulder.

 _Vital to the vault? Hah, hardly, but thanks anyway buddy._

I took a deep breath, glad I had started to work out more over the past year, my breath already normal again. "What is going on? Why are there so many radroaches in here? Someone just died!" I finally managed, "I have only ever seen one or two, much less the dozen plus back the way I just came from."

He glowered at me "someone opened the vault door, they got in not long after."

Something told me more than one person had fallen victim to the swarm of radroaches. I'd never seen Patrick angry before, it frightened me a bit.

"w-who would open the door?" I managed to whimper out.

He glanced back to me, a cold look in his eyes. "Mia".

 _WHAT, WHY… WHY WOULD SHE DO THAT!?_ I thought about Mia, the only kid growing up that had truly been a friend to me. The girl I had had a crush on for over 5 years, the girl I have, to my shame, fantasized about on more than one occasion… she was gone? Out to the world, if there was even a world, above _?_

I didn't have a lot of time to think as that was about the same time several radroaches rounded the corner and charged toward us. I opened up my E-TAS (Enhanced Targeting Assistant System, an improvement to VATS, something one of our engineers came up with about 100 years into vault life), turns out, reading those technical books helped, they had let me modify my pipboy to perform at 150% capacity (making it more accurate). Turns out it did matter and I felt about 20% cooler now.

My first shot hit a roach square in its head, dropping it, my next two missed even with E-TAS up. I realized how much I had let my skills with shooting slip not long after my dad stopped insisting I practice… wish I had listened to him now.

Thankfully E-TAS let my fourth shot strike home, felling another roach with my pistol.

Officer Patrick performed better, only missing one of his 5 shots.

We both heard a scream come from up ahead, we sprinted full blast as we reloaded.

This was exciting, thrilling, it was adventure it wasn't routine. I gulped, I wanted the boring back.

I lay on my bed. _5 dead, 15 hurt, 1 missing._ I stared at the poster on my ceiling, a poster of a heroic knight battling a dragon to save a princess. But I wasn't really looking at it.

I can't believe it… why had Mia done this? Why had she opened the door? Why had she left, she hadn't even said goodbye. I was suddenly hit with how silly that notion was. We hadn't spoken in years, not really. I would be surprised if she had even remembered me. After all, she was not only the overseers protégé, but the best singer in the vault too, had several records. She was probably more popular than Raiden would have ever been. Mia had had everything, so why did she leave? I had to know. I floated my screwdriver and lockpick tool set over, along with a few other tools using the ETU. (What? In my profession, you had to be able to open something even if the power was out! Besides, I had gotten bored one day, read a book or three...)

I was just about to leave when I heard the overseer call for me over the intercoms. _Crap_ I thought, this wasn't good, I was sure of it. I made my way towards her office

"I want you to hack into Mia's computer, as well as my own and decrypt the information therein. Bring it all back to me. I want to know what she plans to do and why she so foolishly opened the Vault door." Overseer Kristine had asked me, a sad expression on her face. _Heh, she is asking me to do what I was going to do anyway... This works out well!_ That was, until I saw the level of encryption Mia had on her computer. Seriously, how did she know how to do this? For god's sake even I could barely break it. Breaking into this would take some serious work. I smiled, but then I thought I –would- get in, and I was probably the only person down here that could now. After Several hours of banging my head against walls and frustrated hand gestures, I finally managed to get in.

Entry #01

 _I have just found out that the Vault door has been opened before, that there is life out there… I had to hack into the overseers terminal to find that out, but it was worth it. I don't think she even knows I did it. Turns out, a whole scouting party was sent out the year I was born. Including…. His mom... Veronica. They lied to us about that too I guess. The report stated that she had never come back, only two of them had. There were reports of a town not far from the vault that had taken them in, the town was in a bad shape and the others had stayed back to help the town. For some reason the overseer freaked out then. She shut the door and locked it up tight, saying to never open it again. I saw more files, all encrypted, but they looked to be decrypted easily enough. However I had to bail as the overseer almost caught me. Tonight I am going to find out more._

 _Entry #02_

 _HOW DARE THEY! HOW DARE THEY KEEP THAT FROM US! How dare they lie to us... There was so much life above us. There was civilization, civilization that our knowledge and technology could help but the overseer Kristine decided that they weren't good enough to risk our lives for apparently, that we counted more than them. I can't believe it! It makes me sick to think someone could think that way. I had always had a feeling, some kind of sixth sense that they were keeping something from us. Now I know. I am going to confront Kristine tomorrow; I know she will understand, she will do the right thing. She has too._

 _Entry #03_

 _I can't believe it…. She... she wouldn't listen. She even apologized to me, she told me one day I would understand, but I don't think I will. I don't think I ever want too. She apologized to me, but she wouldn't make things right, she wouldn't tell everyone the truth. She asked me to drop it, to forget about it. She offered to use one of those… horrible machines to take my memory away. I almost hit her. She also rescinded all of my clearances for using anything but my terminal unless I was under her watch. Fine. She wanted to shut me up? Well this gal is TOTATLLY going to fight back. She doesn't know I have the vault door override code, I am not even sure she knows it exists. I didn't want to do this but she pushed me to this. I cannot sit in here while there are people that I could help outside. I have downloaded all of the information and schematics contained in our vault into my pipboy. With this I just know I can make a difference, I can be somebody's savior. I can help someone. Oh, and I know you are reading this now. You are the only one that could hack into my stuff… I miss you, I'm sorry I never had to time to speak with you, I hardly had time to record new songs with my other work but I really enjoyed your stories, and the talks we had. Even if I couldn't see you hmhm, I just wanted to say sorry… I probably won't get the chance to in person. Good bye, and stay safe._

 _P.S please erase these messages after you read this,_

 _Yours truly- Mia Ravenmore_

I felt tears welling up in my eyes, I had just simultaneously learned that not only could my mother be alive, out there, but that the girl I had loved for so long had remembered me. She had known it was me, knew that I was Raiden and she hadn't told anyone…


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2- Escape

I had looked through the overseers records, I managed to decrypt all of them, even the one from vault-tech. I knew why she closed the doors… I agreed with Mia, screw that Horsecrap. I thought back to the confrontation I had had with the overseer.

"You LIED to me. You, all of you, told me my mother had died during childbirth. Even though these records clearly state my mother was alive a year after I was born, that she even went out with a scouting party!" I shouted at the point of fury.

Overseer Kristine merely looked at me, a pained expression on her face. "She abandoned you, she left you and your father and risked this vaults mission. I just wanted to make it easier on you."

I felt like I had just been suckerpunched. She HAD left. She knew I was here, but chose to not come back. Would it have been better if I just kept thinking she had died? No. I remembered what the reports had said. _People here who need help, they have clean water from something called project purity, but that's just water. They still need help, medical in particular. I also want to study these… "ghouls" horrifying at first, but they are still people, underneath.._ I knew why my mother had not returned with the other two.

"They never thought you would lock them out. They had intended to come back! They wanted to help those people. They wanted to do what was right. But you locked them out." I glowered, my words dripping from my mouth like venom.

"I DID what was right. I will NOT jeopardize this vaults mission, or its inhabitants because someone wanted to play heroine. Our mission is, as I am sure you have read to remain a pure, bastion of humanity. While the world outside mutates we are to remain pure our doors were never supposed to be opened." The overseer stood tall, if she had any doubt about her actions, it wasn't showing.

"SCREW THE VAULTS MISSION!" I yelled. "The idiots that wanted that died over 250 years ago! They have no idea what is going on, or even what could have happened!"

I had never been so vocal about anything in my life. Normally I was too shy, but right now I was furious. A righteous anger seemed to be bursting from me. I realized I was the only one yelling, that I, at 19 years of age, was yelling at not only an adult, but the overseer that was in charge of our entire world. And I didn't care.

She hardened her face almost as if she had removed all emotion and spoke with an ice cold, professional voice one that matched her slightly greying hair and rigid facial features.

"Young man, I tried to be civil with you, just as I had with Mia, however I will not make the same mistake twice. Until you can calm down and use your better judgment you will be placed under house arrest and be monitored by security personnel. You are not to tell anyone what you have learned here today. Sometimes some things are better left forgotten, in two days' time I will have your memories removed and stored into a MRRD (Memory Removal and Retrieval Device) so you won't have to be tortured with the knowledge you know have.

I blanched. Better forgotten? NOTHING is better of forgotten. How could she demand me to allow her to remove my memory? Even if it was just this, no, especially this, she would never hide the truth from me again, no one would. My surprise turned back to anger, I felt it swelling up to even greater peaks than when I had first entered her office. In what I believe was the most epic failing of diplomatic speaking I ever attempted and simultaneously the biggest lie ever. I said, in a voice as low and cold as ice. "If you even try to touch my memories, I. Will. Kill. You." Then turned and stormed out of her office, cutting the conversation there.

Back in my room I was struck with what I had just done, I had just threatened the overseer. It felt like someone had chucked a cinderblock at me. Hurriedly I grabbed everything I could fit in my backpack, extra clothes, water, some snacks, my tools, and a knife I had made. I had to get out; it was all that was left to me. As I went to open the door I grabbed my dad's pistol, and the few magazines I had left. _Might need these… Hope not though._ Just as I as leaving my room I heard shouts from the end of the hall and turned to see two security officers running towards me. I sprinted down the other way, the layout of the Vault basically imprinted into my brain I easily circled around them. Not long after that I was one room away from the vault entrance. I set the door to seal behind me with a new passcode, but when I stepped into the room I saw of all people, my dad, standing there, like he had been waiting.

"So, you've decided to leave to then? Without even saying goodbye to your old man?"

I was shocked, not only to see him here, but because for the first time in years, he wasn't drunk or hungover.

"I'm coming back, once I find Mia, and my mother we'll all come back." I said without blinking.

My dad just sighed. "Are you so sure? You think they'll just let you all back in, just like that?"

"You just don't think I can do it, that I'll be a failure like you." I replied harshly.

"No, no you've never been much like me, much more like your mother. You'll make it, and if they're alive, I believe you'll find them. I just don't think you realize just what you are committing to by doing this." He replied calmly.

"I don't care, I'm doing this and no one, not even you can stop me." I glared at him, how dare he sober up just to try and stop me.

"No, I won't try to stop you, your life is your own, ya gotta live it doing what you think is best. I… just wanted to see you, one last time." He looked to the ground

"Oh, like you've wanted to care about me the past 9 years? How you always avoid me, or only speak to me drunk off your ass?" I was getting angry again. He stood their awhile, just staring at the ground. Finally, he spoke again.

"I've done a lot of things I am not proud of, for me, too much; I just wanted to let you know before you left, that you're one of the few I can say I'm proud of." He stopped leaning on the railing and finally looked at me. Just then a pounding came from the door behind me.

"Quickly! Open the damn door! Stop him!"

"Now then, you've made your decision, hurry up and get that door open. I'll keep them off your back."

I worked furiously; hacking into the vault door commands was hard. Harder even than getting into Mia's terminal but I had already vowed to do it. I had tried the override code ml3pfism1 (weird right?) apparently that had been changed. Doesn't matter, I was getting out and I was going to make sure Mia made it back. After a few minutes an alarm went off, and then an ear splitting screech as metal slid on metal as the giant door opened. I sprinted through it, adrenaline rushing through me. I was finally going to get to see the world above.


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3 -Hell on Wheels

I stood there staring out for what seemed like hours, to be honest; it was far from what I had expected. Dust swirled around in the air, husks of burnt out buildings littered the land, blackened, scorched, dead trees jutted from the land like jagged spikes. Concrete structures that could only be the half collapsed remains of ruined highways and monorails cut across the land above the ground. The ground was cracked and dry. What must have been the sun was shining bright in the sky, beating down on the land, and me. It was, quite frankly the most epic sight I have ever seen yet, the most terrifying. I had read about just how BIG the world was, but nothing could prepare me for the actual sight of it. Finally, after standing and staring for several minutes the only thing I could say was. "Where's the grass?" After shaking myself out of my stupor I looked around and saw what appeared to be a large ring of scrap next to what was surprisingly a 3 story building. _Well, I suppose that's as decent a place to start as any._ So I set about picking my why down the large hill I was on. You know, things look a lot closer than they actually are. It took me TWO hours of walking to get to the building, which of course, was surrounded in fencing. I was also already missing the controlled temperature of the vault. I have never sweated so much in my LIFE, trust me that's not a joke. Anyway, I had to walk around almost the entire area to find the entrance to the fence. I probably should have noticed that it had been forced open, but I didn't. I had made it through what seemed an entrance to a fort to the building doors.

"Police station eh? Well, bound to be something useful in here… Locked? Jesus, this lock is archaic… hehe, shouldn't be too hard though…" After a few minutes of tussling with the lock I managed to open it. _Good thing I had tools for this_. I had just finished when I realized I heard breathing, very, very close breathing. Slowly I turned around and came face to face with a giant, ripped, green chest. Slowly I looked up. I saw its face, with bared teeth and gulped. It was staring at me then suddenly it yelled.

"AGHHHH, HUMAN! DIE! DIE HUMAN!" needless to say, I let out the manliest squeal anyone has ever heard. That is until a giant green fist caught me right in my jaw and sent me flying at least 6 feet to collapse on the ground. In spite of the intense pain and disorientation I managed to draw my pistol and fired several shots, E-TAS coming up automatically. 3 of them struck home slamming into the creature's chest, however to my horror, it kept coming.

"SUPER MUTANT, SQUASH… HUMAN!" It grabbed a wooden plank from the ground and lifted it over its head to smash me. In a last ditch effort I aimed my pistol at its head and fired. This time the bullet hit right between its eyes, and with a grunt it slumped over. I let out an exhausted sigh and as the adrenaline began to leave my system my vision began to blur. Then I saw what looked like three people walking towards me, two men and one woman. I was so relieved, that is, until I heard them talking.

"Well holy shit. Looks like the fucking idiot managed to survive. Well that's good news for us boys, got ourselves a new plaything!"

"Hah! I love fresh meat."

"Look at that, he's got one O them, uh, pip band things."

"It's a pip-boy you fucking idiot, now do your damn job and go get em before the other mutants come to check out the noise."

I had to get away, I knew whatever they wanted me for, it wasn't good natured, or good for my health. My vision was going dark now but I managed to raise my pistol again and fired twice, then heard a click. _Empty… damn_. But I got a yelp of pain for my efforts as one of my shots blew out the knee of the large man that had been walking towards me. My arm dropped as the other man ran towards me streaming curses and used the butt of his rifle to smack me on my nose. Then suddenly my world was black.

I woke up with one hell of a splitting headache and stark naked save my boxers. I rolled over groaning and my hand landed on something wet and slimy. To my horror I discovered it was the entrails of my ex-cell mate. What little food I had left in me returned to the world. After collecting myself I managed to look around the room. Kinda wish I hadn't. Decimated bodies hung from hooks on the wall or laid stretched out on bloody mattresses. If I had still had anything in me, it would have exited post haste. Luck was on my side however as my stomach was emptier than an unlocked safe. It was dim, hard to see details so against my better judgement I turned on the light in my pip boy(thankfully they hadn't removed that yet) and set it to direct mode. A beam of light much like a flashlight shot out and let me focus on what I wanted to see. After scanning the room I figured I was in some kind of school. Anywhere there wasn't a mutilated corpse or cage there was old, ruined school desks. _Great, all this place needs is some children singing nursey rhymes to be perfect…_ I awoke from my thoughts when my eyes passed over some bobby pins lying on the floor. _Hmm, I've read you could pick locks with those… but I've always used my tool, worth a shot I guess._ I activated my ETU(luckily, the ETU ran off your bodies energy as well as the pipboy, and it stored a certain amount of energy overtime. Once that was used up however, it could fatigue you just as fast as sprinting if you used it too much). I lifted the pins up and over to the lock, unfortunately, I couldn't see it, and I couldn't use my hands. While I had worked with finesse with the ETU before, I've never done it blind. _Maaan. This is gonna suck._ Right before I started I heard a shout from what seemed just like the other side of the door.

"EY! Boss said its time for a meeting. Got eyes on another caravan to hit up."

The other responded "The fuck you tellin' me for. Tell the boss he can come get me his damn self, I don't take orders from punk ass lackeys. Hahaha."

"The fuck you laughing at asshole."The one that had shouted sounded much closer.

"You, the fuck you gonna do about it. Punk"

There was a gunshot, a splattering sound, and the sound of a body hitting the floor then footsteps walking away.

"Not such a smartass now are ya."

 _Great, not only am I trapped, but I'm trapped with deranged psychopaths that'll kill anyone for the heck of it._ I took another look around the room. _Yea, time to get out, let's try not to get caught…_ Well, I broke 4 of the 5 bobby pins I found lying around the room. It's much harder to work without the proper tools but I finally managed to finagle the lock open after what felt like hours. Now, I wasn't only naked and in pain from my jaw and likely broken nose, I was exhausted from the ETU and starving. _Keep calm… Keep calm…. Nope. I'm gonna die, this is it for me…_ I shook myself out of dead end thoughts and tried to focus I flipped the light from my pipboy off and as quietly as possible worked my way towards the only door in the room. I stopped and put my ear to the door to listen. Nothing. Slowly, I cracked open the door to peer out. Lying right in front of the door was what I could only guess was one of the men from earlier with his head splattered on the wall. I nearly jumped backwards at the sight. I let out a deep sigh and pushed through the door to search the guy. _An army knife? Well, don't suppose he needs it anymore._ I looked up to see a pistol laying a little ways away. Another closer, search of the smelly man yielded me a magazine that seemed to fit the pistol _Best not use this until I have too, too loud_. I looked to what the man was wearing… _Nah… if these psychos don't kill me that definitely would._ After slinking down a couple of hallways, and having almost stepped on a bear trap _really, who the hells leaves bear traps laying around_. I sat down in the safest place I could find, a bathroom stall with a busted toilet. I had no clue where I was going, or which way was out and I was terrified to start opening doors for fear of walking right into one or more of these psychotic bastards. Worse, my nerves were fried, my head was throbbing with every heartbeat, and my hands were shaking like a man under heavy withdrawal. After about 30 minutes of calming my nerves I heard steps from outside, and then I heard the door open and a stream of muttered words I couldn't really make out. He walked right up beside my stall and, holy hell, he was pissing. At this point, the logical me would have sat there not moving a muscle and just let him go, but I was far from logical me at this point. I was angry, angry at these people for putting me through this pain and torture, angry at myself for getting into this situation, and well, probably just grumpy too. I gripped the combat knife tightly and slowly snuck out of the stall I had hid in. I'd never killed someone before, but I'd seen stuff in movies or books. I covered his mouth and rammed the knife through the front of his throat. Blood soaked my hand and as he fell I felt my body tremble. _Holy shit._ Was all I could really think, I'd just killed a man with my hands when I had never even fought anyone before. I heard echoes of Mia's voice "kind and gentle". I stared at the knife protruding from the dead man's throat for several minutes. Finally I shook my head and grabbed the knife, yanking it from the man's throat. _This, this wasn't what I expected at all._ Suddenly I heard multiple shouts that sounded like they came from behind the doubles doors at the end of the hallway. Thinking I'd been discovered I grabbed what I thought of value from the now dead man. I left a bag filled with bottle caps, strange, wouldn't take these kinda guys as people with hobbies. I busted out of the bathroom entrance to smack right into another of these psycho's who had been running towards the double doors.

"What the-, the fuck you think you doing fucking with raiders kid!" He shouted, as he went to draw his gun. I already had mine out, and I was close enough that I didn't even need E-TAS to hit him. As I got to the double doors I heard more shouting and something that sounded like an engine, then literal loads of gunfire. I took a deep breathe, it was now or never I suppose. I slammed through the door and entered what I can only describe as hell. It was what seemed to be the entrance to the building long ago, but now it had several larges cages filled with skeletons, mutilated bodies, and even other prisoners like me. At the front was at least 8, likely more, of the raiders. Lucky for me they were all focused on whatever was outside. I quickly hid behind a pillar as one of them turned to look towards the door and cursed.

"Fucking wind man", then went back to firing his weapon at something outside. Over the gunfire I could hear shouts of "shoot the bike", and "just kill the bastard!" when suddenly the entire front wall was seemingly filled with bullets. Plaster, glass, wood, it was all torn apart. I could even see chips of the pillar I was hiding behind flying off. Most of the raiders at the front wall were killed, or maimed out of commission. A couple attempted to retreat further into the building, running right past me. Almost off instinct, without a thought I emptied the pistol I had into both of them. I turned to look and saw that most of the other prisoners had gotten the same treatment as the raiders. The ones that were still alive were either using other bodies as shields or were just super lucky. As another surge of adrenaline fell off from my system I slumped to the floor. I heard an engine get louder and then suddenly the boarded up front door slammed inward and one of the biggest motorcycles I'd ever seen. (hey, we have magazines and books of our pre-war world ya know) driving it was a man in a heavy, thick, duster uniform with thick round sunglasses and what I guessed was a cowboy hat. Attached to the bike was some of the biggest guns I had ever seen. Each side sported some type of high caliber machine rifle, and the front had what I figured was some type of sub machine gun, two of them taped together, attached to it. The man hoped off the bike and pulled out a pump action shotgun from the back of it and grinned. From the second floor balcony above us two more of the guys that called themselves raiders popped up and started shooting. The man ducked behind the pillar opposite me, popped out the other side and easily took out the raider on the far right (my left). Then I heard a "Damn" and noticed the raider right above me was reloading. The man with the shotgun stepped into view and pumped 3 shells into the raider dropping him dead. By this time I had just managed to clumsily reload my pistol and just in time to see another raider sneaking up on the man while he was reloading. I forced my body to stand and function, pulling up E-TAS and fired. It hit the raider square between his eyes. For a second, I thought I was going to get blasted by the shotgun until the man turned around and saw the now dead raider. He tipped his hat walked up to me. "Names Jesse friend, thanks for watching my six. Now let's clean this place out."


End file.
